OnLive set to shake up gaming sector

Cloud-based service could open up the market to Apple, Google and even netbooks, experts claim

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Cloud-based gaming service OnLive is threatening to alter the gaming market, with netbooks and Apple look set to benefit most from the technology.

The device streams content from a server to either a thin client or a computer acting as a thin client. Experts have said that it could open up the market to netbooks and Macs – two areas that have yet to benefit particularly from gaming.

However, while the two of the major console manufacturers – Sony and Nintendo – have expressed doubts about the viability of the service, the CEO of fellow cloud gaming service Playcast, Guy de Beer has said that the technology was unlikely to have been designed as a standalone device.

"In order to compete with the consoles, OnLive will have to build a distributed data centre which will be in every local network, invest serious money in network capacity and buy all the bandwidth to support it," de Beer told TechRadar recently.

He pointed to Microsoft as a likely suitor, though Google and Apple have both been mentioned by others.